Blogs

Anyone want to have a workshop on NYC school recycling or environmental education at the  conference?

Please remind teachers that DSNY-BWPRR is happy to work with their
school's custodian and administration to help set up their school
recycling programs. They can get free decals, signs, and educational
materials including K-5 curriculum kits, coloring & comic books for elementary grades, videos & DVDs; and info to take home, such as bookmarks & recycling checklist refrigerator magnets. Download or order free materials online at www.nyc.gov/ nycwasteless/ goldenapple

Also the NYC Compost Project, funded by BWPRR, operating at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden,
is delighted to visit schools or host field trips to teach students
about decomposition, composting, and vermicomposting (with worms). Get
all the dirt at www.nyccompost. org.  

Schools can win enormous cash prizes (from $1,500 up to $6,000) through
DSNY's Golden Apple Awards for their school recycling, waste
prevention, or beautification initiatives that meet Dept of Education
Standards; and the Golden Shovel Award for Brooklyn Borough Master
School Composter. www.nyc.gov/ nycwasteless/ goldenapple

I am reposting this blog entry, so it's the first one on the list since our meeting is coming up.  If you can, please email me at mathjosi@yahoo.com to let me know if you plan to attend, so we can give the cafe a heads up on the number of people we plan on having at the meeting.  Look forward to meeting you!! 

We will have our next committee meeting on:

Friday, December 7th at 5pm
Red Horse Cafe
12th Street and 6th Avenue in Park Slope

Agenda:

1. Introductions & Interests
2. Recycling in Your School: How to we start and run an awesome recycling program!
3. Educating Tomorrow: The blog/website in order to stay connected and
how we can pool ideas on environmental education in our schools.
4. Pushing for change: Who should we contact politically to move for
real change in the system? Bill DeBasio, Public Advocate, should we
contact a lawyer?
5. Media: Creating a media kit and getting the word out now
6. Planning Ahead: What we're going to work on and setting next meeting date

We decided to use the Red Horse Cafe, they have a really nice square
couch area, but we can't reserve it, so Coquille and I will try to get
there early to HOG the couch area...anyone else who could get there
early to help us with the HOGGING is welcome, but we will try to start
on-time with introductions. Hope to see you there.

Micki Josi
mathjosi@yahoo.com
NYC School Recycling Action Committee
My blog: http://www.educatingtomorrow.org/node/224

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead

New Perspectives Theatre Company has a new play this year, The Adventures of Rubbish in the Hood, for grades pre-K-6. It transports the legend of Robin Hood to New York
City. Unlike the original Hood, who took from the rich and gave to
the poor, their Robert Hood takes from everyone—he’s a garbage
man! Yet this sanitation engineer gets fed up with trash and discovers the importance of reducing litter and increasing recycling and sets about saving his Brooklyn 'hood. The audience joins the
cast for some fun and games teaching valuable lesson about community service, citizenship and protecting our environment.

For more information, contact New Perspectives at 212-630-9945 or contact@newperspectivestheatre.org.

So this event took place at Solar One on Tuesday
December 4, 2007, 7pm ... but the woman from the New York City Department of Sanitation, Samatha Macbride, sent me the list of resources on the web that she gave out at the meeting, so I will post them below.  Check out Solar One's <http://www.solar1. org>
E. 23rd and the East River, lecture series called The Green Renter for other upcoming events of interest.

WOW... this is so UNBELIEVABLE and synchronistic... this is everything my old school experienced and more... Anyway know how to get ahold of Amy Eddings??

Check out the radio story (it will take only 5 minutes or less of your time and it's so worth it!!)
http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/89638

Micki Josi
NYC School Recycling Action Committee
My blog: http://www.educatingtomorrow.org/node/224

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead

We will have our next committee meeting on:

Friday, December 7th at 5pm
Red Horse Cafe
12th Street and 6th Avenue in Park Slope

Agenda:

1. Introductions & Interests
2. Recycling in Your School: How to we start and run an awesome recycling program!
3. Educating Tomorrow: The blog/website in order to stay connected and how we can pool ideas on environmental education in our schools.
4. Pushing for change: Who should we contact politically to move for real change in the system? Bill DeBasio, Public Advocate, should we contact a lawyer?
5. Media: Creating a media kit and getting the word out now
6. Planning Ahead: What we're going to work on and setting next meeting date

We decided to use the Red Horse Cafe, they have a really nice square couch area, but we can't reserve it, so Coquille and I will try to get there early to HOG the couch area...anyone else who could get there early to help us with the HOGGING is welcome, but we will try to start on-time with introductions. Hope to see you there.

Micki Josi
mathjosi@yahoo.com
NYC School Recycling Action Committee
My blog: http://www.educatingtomorrow.org/node/224

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead

Currently at my school we are working on a unit to teach students about garbage and recycling. Here are few of my brainstorm ideas on how we might go about it... I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback:
I have a few ideas for math lessons.

1. I'm sure we can do a lot with the Gone Tomorrow video with statistics: (I'll have to watch the video a 3rd time to make sure I got these right)
a. Only 5% of all plastic is recycled
b. Plastic is produced at 7 times the rate that it is recycled
c. Corporation produce 70 times the amount of waste as individuals
We could follow this grim video up with a few light hearted videos: Simpsons: Trash of the Titans and The Lorax. I have the Lorax and would be happy to buy Gone Tomorrow (I sent you the link before for the video on-line) and Simpson Season 9 DVDs.

2. Recyclables Mobile
Students should do a recycles scavenger hunt in order to solve and display visually their answer to:
1. How many cups are in one gallon? or How many ounces are in one gallon? They could collect 1 gallon, connect that to 4 containers that are size one quart, on each quart hang two pint size objects, on each pint two cups size objects. They could collect these items form their recycling at home and start to display them. We could simultaneously be teaching kids about recycling at home and give them decals etc to set up their own home recycling system. This might inspire students to want to create a school recycling program... we can talk more about this.

3. Calculate waste

I sent the following letter to the mayor on the city's website. The response below the letter was from Mary Most from NYC Dept. of Sanitation's Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse & Recycling. You should contact her if you are interested in starting a school recycling program. She can provide you with information and some supplies, including decals, poster, curriculum, videos, and more. She is also the person you will work with on your Golden Apple Awards entry if you start a program. She recommends that instead of writing to the Mayor, since she will in term receive the letter and have to respond to it, that we send all letters to Chancellor Klein, since the problem is within the DOE and he's responsible for enforcing his own regulations with regard to recycling (check out Coquille's blog for a copy on the Chancellor's regulations on recycling in the DOE).

-----------------------------My Letter to the Mayor-----------------------------

As a New York City teacher fellow who started and ran a recycling program in a Bedford-Styvesant middle school for two years. I face the issues discussed by the recent Post article: “IL'LITTER'ATE SCHOOLS FLUNK THEIR RECYCLING” on a daily basis.
I have a few questions for you:
1. Why doesn’t the city promote recycling?
2. Is the city’s garbage situation at a crisis level yet? When will it be?
3. How much garbage does the city generate?
4. Where does all of our the garbage go?
5. How much of this waste is reusable and/or recyclable?
6. What will happen if we keep throwing all of these recyclable items away?
7. Can the city or school generate some kind of income from recycling?
8. Is recycling cost effective?
9. When will we be so overwhelmed with garbage we won’t have anywhere else to put it? What will happen then?
10. Why don’t people realize that this is an inevitable crisis that must and can be averted through a wide-spread reduce, reuse, and recycling effort?

Who and what is the School Recycling Action Committee?

Coquille and I (Micki AKA mathjosi) are both crazy Oregon hippie chicks who came to NYC to find experience in the big city. Coming for a very green town of Eugene, Oregon, we were stunned and amazed by the amount of waste and lack of environmental awareness that we'd become accustomed to. Both NYC Teaching Fellows (me - teaching middle school math, she teaching bilingual elementary), we were horrified by the dismal sight of dirty old blue recycling bins in every classroom being used only for garbage, no thought or mention of recycling, littered cafeterias, hallways, and classrooms.... not to mention neighborhoods and students who found it common place to throw trash on the sidewalks, streets, on the floor, in the desks, and even out the window. We inspired each other to take on the volunteer role of recycling coordinator in addition to our demanding teacher duties in tough Brooklyn schools. I started and ran my program for two years in a shared building with two other schools, while she simultaneously did the same at her elementary school, which occupied her entire building. We shared ideas about how to work with our custodians, acquire the necessary bins, train our students with assemblies, held promotional contests, and contacted Sanitation constantly about the problems we were experiencing with their collection which is infrequent at best or sometimes doesn't happen for weeks on end while bags of recycables become litter all over the side walk and streets.

Finally we documented the whole process to present to New York City's Department of